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Jussie Smollett Charged With Felony for Lying to Police, Released on $100,000 Bond

February 21, 2019

Last updated on February 23, 2019

Last Updated: 21:34 CST

This is an ongoing investigative story that will continuously be updated. Check back or sign up for email notifications to constantly be updated on this story and more.

Updates

Friday: Fox TV cuts Jussie Smollett from Empire. A portion of the statement reads as follows:

“The events of the past few weeks have been incredibly emotional for all of us,” “Jussie has been an important member of our ‘Empire’ family for the past five years and we care about him deeply. While these allegations are very disturbing, we are placing our trust in the legal system as the process plays out.”

Thursday, 16:59: Jussie Smollett has just been released from court on a $100,000 bond and termination of his passport.

Empire Actor Jussie Smollett has recently been arrested for filing a false report about a hate crime, according to The Chicago Police Department. The CPD informed the media that he was taken into custody just after 05:00 CST.

He is charged with “disorderly conduct” for perpetuating the false hate crime. In the original report, Smollett alleged that two men, each wearing black attacked him and yelled racial and homophobic slurs while both wearing Trump Campaign Apparel.

After three weeks of conflicting and urgent reports from prosecutors and the police department, the final update has been given Thursday morning. Anthony Guglielmi, Chief Communications Officer for The Chicago Police Department, said the State’s Attorney office had approved a felony charge of disorderly conduct against Smollett.

Later, it was also made public that Smollett issued a payment to these men for $3,500.

CPD Superintendent Eddie Johnson said it best:

“First, Smollett attempted to gain attention by sending a false letter that relied on racial, homophobic, and political language. When that didn’t work, Smollett paid $3,500 to stage this attack and drag Chicago’s reputation through the mud in the process… and why? This stunt was orchestrated by Smollett because he was dissatisfied with his salary. So, he concocted a story about being attacked.”

At the time this was revealed, Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said “”We just didn’t have the total package to support that it was a hoax,”…”This investigation didn’t turn in the direction of Mr. Smollett being a defendant until the 47th hour that we had those two individuals in custody.”

Felony criminal charges have been approved by @CookCountySAO against Jussie Smollett for Disorderly Conduct / Filing a False Police Report. Detectives will make contact with his legal team to negotiate a reasonable surrender for his arrest. pic.twitter.com/LvBSYE2kVj

As it stands, the current law describes that any person(s) who file one or more police reports is subject to between 1 and 3 years in prison.

Video appears to show brothers buying items

The Chicago Police Department says they’d like to continue their investigation as new details arise. They say that at least one of the two men who attacked Smollett was featured on Empire. According to CBS Chicago (WBBM), the two men said, in an interview that they “are not homophobic”, “not racist”.

A source connected to The CPD also said both of the men have prior affiliations with Smollett, personally or publicly.

FI: Getty and ClickOnDetroit

This is an ongoing investigative story that will continuously be updated. Check back or sign up for email notifications to constantly be updated on this story and more.

My name is Jay Doherty. I am currently a freshman in high school and I create The Jay Doherty Podcast, The JDRC Politics Podcast, write online for The Doherty Files newspaper, and oversee a multi-terabyte locally stored server array called Genisys. Follow me on Twitter @jddjr777 for the latest coverage of world and national news.